China GP: Hayden fastest
Nicky Hayden set the fastest time on the opening day of the first ever Chinese GP.
The Factory Honda rider set his best lap in the opening practice session with a 2:02.327, leaving Movistar Honda team-mates Marco Melandri and Sete Gibernau in second and third and Valentino Rossi down in fifth.
But rain came down for the second session and lap times dropped off. It did dry out enough later in the session for the riders to use cut slicks but top man Kenny Roberts was still lapping 12 seconds slower than Hayden’s earlier time.
Camel Honda rider Alex Barros took the second fastest time with Sete Gibernau still in third place followed by Troy Bayliss, Max Biaggi and Valentino Rossi.
Rain is forecast for the whole weekend so this could potentially be the first time that we see the riders make use of the pit stop option to change from slicks to wet tyres under the new flag-to-flag racing rules.
We’ll be bringing you full updates from all the weekends racing and you can get all the behind the scenes action only in MCN, out Wednesday May 4.
Official times:
Free practice 2
Kenny Roberts , 2:14.592
Alex Barros , 2:15.076
Sete Gibernau , 2:15.363
Troy Bayliss , 2:15.766
Max Biaggi , 2:15.834
Valentino Rossi , 2:15.920
Marco Melandri , 2:16.209
Colin Edwards , 2:16.696
Carlos Checa , 2:16.841
Toni Elias , 2:17.577
Franco Battaini , 2:18.508
Olivier Jacque , 2:18.995
John Hopkins , 2:19.116
Tohru Ukawa , 2:19.321
Loris Capirossi , 2:19.380
Nicky Hayden , 2:19.423
Ruben Xaus , 2:19.481
Jurgen Vd Goorbergh , 2:19.855
Shinya Nakano , 2:19.950
Roberto Rolfo , 2:20.302
James Ellison , 2:21.701
Free practice 1
Nicky Hayden , 2:02.327
Marco Melandri , 2:02.485
Sete Gibernau , 2:02.557
Carlos Checa , 2:02.664
Valentino Rossi , 2:02.677
Loris Capirossi , 2:02.705
Alex Barros , 2:02.816
Kenny Roberts , 2:03.270
John Hopkins , 2:03.420
Troy Bayliss , 2:03.526
Max Biaggi , 2:03.617
Shinya Nakano , 2:03.687
Colin Edwards , 2:03.799
Toni Elias , 2:04.381
Olivier Jacque , 2:05.165
Ruben Xaus , 2:05.490
Tohru Ukawa , 2:06.822
Roberto Rolfo , 2:06.937
Franco Battaini , 2:07.311
Jurgen Vd Goorbergh , 2:07.661
James Ellison , 2:07.791
